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March 23, 2007

Do you believe that the secret to the "good life" is hard work? That in order to have the best life has to offer you have to first pay your dues?

There is a popular idea running around that we all have to go through a lot of bad things before we can experience the good things. And there seems to be a lot of evidence to support it. Just listen to people who have come through hard times and are now enjoying a better life. They will all tell you the story of the pain and suffering that they endured, and the sacrifices they made, on the long road to their prosperity. Some of them seem to wear their painful past like a badge of honor that says, "I earned my success."

The blessings of God are all about His promises and grace and are not about how hard we have worked, how much we've sacrificed, and how much pain we've endured in order to earn them. The bottom line is that we cannot earn God's grace. And since everything we have in life comes to us because His grace, it is all a gift.

March 02, 2007

From talk shows to forums on the Internet, everyone is talking about "The Secret". The main message of the movie is that a truth, the knowledge about a universal law, has been kept from the poor huddled masses. The main conspirators are rich and powerful business people and, of course, the church.

The writer of the Newsweek article on the movie says, "You'd think the last thing Americans need is more excuses for self-absorption and acquisitiveness." He places the movie in the general category of the kind of inspiration and motivation that has been preached by self-help gurus for years, but with an added stroke of marketing genius, combining the message with conspiracy theories similar to the Da Vinci Code.

January 10, 2007

In a lot of ways I'm pretty average. I may be a bit taller than some, and probably weigh more than I should, but there isn't really anything extraordinary about me. So when I read the stories in the Bible, and think about how the majority of the people who were there reacted, I assume that I would have done what everyone else was doing.

One example is the story in Mark 9:14-29 about a father who brought his demon-possessed son to be healed. When the father came to the disciples, Jesus wasn't there. He was with Peter, James, and John and they were on their way back from the mountain where they had seen Jesus transfigured before their eyes. As they approached the other disciples they noticed that a large crowd had gathered, and that the teachers of the law were arguing with them.

When Jesus asked what they were arguing about, the man whose son was demon-possessed came and explained to Him how his son was being tormented by the spirit, and that he had asked the disciples to cast it out, but they hadn't been able to. It's at this point that Jesus says, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." (Mark 9:19)

December 23, 2006

We are constantly being bombarded with images. We might think that most of them are marketing and advertising messages that we see on TV, billboards, or in the paper. And when it comes to the Internet, advertising is everywhere from email to almost every web page you visit.

Advertisers and marketers have long understood the power of imagery. If they can get a person to imagine a certain feeling, and then associate that feeling with a product, they have a much better chance of selling the product to that person. The use of the proper images is extremely important because of the emotions they cause. And once they get someone emotionally involved with something, once they have created or intensified the desire, the product is sold. The simple truth is that most of us will more readily buy something that we feel we really want over something that we just think we need.

A couple of years ago my wife was tired of driving around in our minivan. She really liked the Mazda commercials with the cute little boy that said, "Zoom, zoom!" And started talking about wanting a little "zoom, zoom" car. About that time she got refrigerator magnet that had one of those 3-D pictures that goes back and forth between two things. The one picture was of a van and the other of the Mazda.

Not long after that she was visiting some of her family and noticed how her nephew, his wife, and their baby, car seat and all, were crammed into their little car. They talked about it and decided to trade straight across, our minivan for their Ford Probe. What we found out later was that the Ford Probe was actually built by Mazda. She had gotten her little "zoom, zoom" car and didn't even realize it.

What would happen with our faith if we would do the same thing that the marketers do, but substitute the desires that God has given us? Would we find that our desire for the things of God would increase if we marketed them to ourselves? And would we experience greater faith if we had a clear picture in our minds of the things we are asking for? The answer is yes.

December 19, 2006

I am about to make a big assumption. That assumption is that you are probably not satisfied with the level of faith that you have in your life. You can probably think of a lot of things that would be different if you just had a little more faith.

The truth is that each of us already has a lot of faith. God has given us more faith than we can imagine. The problem for most of us is that we don't really know how to use it properly. It's unlikely that your parents were people who had a lot of faith in God, so there was no way that they could instill a lot of faith in you.

If your parents were like most people in the world, they probably had a lot of fears and doubts, and their lives were the result of the decisions that they made based on those fears. If you were fortunate enough to have parents who had a lot of faith in God, and they passed that faith on to you, then you are a very rare person.

But based on the assumption that your faith-life isn't what you would like it to be, the question that I would like to ask is: Are you willing to change that?

December 12, 2006

With Christmas approaching, one of the things on my mind, especially since it's showing up in commercials, is one of my all-time favorite movies, "It's a Wonderful Life." This Frank Capra film with Jimmy Stewart became something of a Christmas tradition for us. And, since it's a tradition, we always watch the black-and-white version. :-)

I first saw the movie on Christmas Eve some 30+ years ago. It's the typical story of a good guy who struggles his entire life, never accomplishes his big dreams, and fails to realize just how wonderful his life has really been. And one of the more typical themes in the movie is the battle that goes on between George Bailey, the hero of the story, played by Jimmy Stewart, and the very wealthy, but warped and frustrated, Mr. Potter, played by Lionel Barrymore.

George works hard his entire life helping people escape the clutches of the evil Mr. Potter. His life is one of sacrifice for the greater good, while Mr. Potter is only thinking about lining his own pockets with money he extorts from the poor working class citizens of Bedford Falls. It's a story that shows up in a million different ways in millions of stories. And what are we supposed to learn from this story?

December 07, 2006

Faith is the most powerful force known to man. Jesus told us that we can literally pick up a mountain and throw it into the sea (Mark 11:22-24) with nothing more than our faith. If we were to use a nuclear bomb, the best we could hope for would be to blow the mountain to bits. We would not be able to pick it up and throw it into the sea.

But there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to faith. In a conversation that I had some time ago, I was explaining to a friend of mine that I wanted to understand how faith works, and then explain it to people. His response was, "Faith is a mystery, and we can't understand it."

On the one hand, I understand what he's saying. There are things about how faith operates that are difficult to understand, and some things that we will never know (for more on that, please see my article: The Law of Sowing and Reaping). But having a better understanding of faith is essential if we are going to please God.

December 01, 2006

Every day we have choices. From the car we drive, to the way we spend each minute of our day, we are constantly weighing options and making decisions. Sometimes we think things through, consider all the factors, and make a decision that we believe is the best one. But many times we find ourselves caught in the middle of what we want, what other people may want from us, and what God has planned.

The problem that we often face is that we end up torn between what we want and what we think is "right". And when we're torn between different desires, we end up creating doubt. And that doubt will kill our faith faster than anything else in this world. We might be able to stand up against criticism, we might even be able to handle disappointment and discouragement, but when our minds fill with questions and doubts, our faith is gone.

November 29, 2006

Many people have heard the statement, "You reap what you sow." Or, as my wife learned when she was making drapes for a living, "You rip what you sew." When it comes to sowing and reaping we often fail to enjoy the blessings that God has for us because we don't fully understand this law. Some people refer to it under different names, but some also recognize that this is the law of laws. Understanding how this works can help us create the kind of life we desire.